Jordan's state prosecutor, Mahmud Obeidat, called for...

Jordan's state prosecutor, Mahmud Obeidat, called for the death penalty for 11 people on trial over the murder of Laurence Foley, a US Agency for International Development official, in 2002. "The crimes carried out by the accused were aimed at undermining Jordan's security and stability, and they are among the ugliest and most dangerous of crimes," Obeidat told the state security court. Obeidat urged the court to issue death sentence against the defendants for "plotting to carry out terrorist activities leading to the death of an individual" as well as illegal possession of weapons. Foley, 62, was shot eight times outside his Amman home on October 28, 2002, as he was climbing into his car to go to work. Only five defendants, including suspected ringleaders Salem Saad Salem bin Suwed, a Libyan national, and Yasser Fathi Ibrahim Freihat, a Jordanian, had attended the court hearings and all of them have pleaded not guilty. The suspects still at large were three Syrians, a Palestinian and two Jordanians, including Fadel Nazzal al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.